


Chicanery Night's Brewery

by mildlysinning (arka_r)



Series: Abrasax Family Splices: The Saga of Most Unfortunate Space Employees [3]
Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Gen, Illegal Brewery, Smuggling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-08-27
Packaged: 2018-04-17 12:44:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4666992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arka_r/pseuds/mildlysinning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Under the Abrasax Refinery #1106, there was an illegal brewery ran by Chicanery Night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chicanery Night's Brewery

**Author's Note:**

> brain vomit when i had panic attack earlier this afternoon.

Under the Abrasax Refinery #1106, at Room 22-B-9 which was marked as an unused storage room, there was an illegal brewery ran by the Refinery Manager and Lord Balem Abrasax’ spymaster himself, Chicanery Night.

 

Night didn’t know if there were another illegal brewery under Lord Balem’s refineries scattered across the quadrant and to be honest, he didn’t really care. This brewery was his baby and it produced a special kind of liquor called Eye of the Storm. It was so strong it could knock a Sargorn off their feet.

 

The most important thing? Lord Balem didn’t know a damn thing about the place and no one was suicidal enough to inform the First Primary of the House of Abrasax.

 

The Room, or so the employees called it, was one of the only source of joy in this otherwise dull and dreary place. Splices and Sargorns would go down there after hour and bonded over their shared misery. In there, they would share news from home, both good and bad, or trade off recipes of various treats like cookies and cakes. Poetry nights were held regularly. Turned out Sargons _loved_ poetry.

 

Based on unspoken agreement, they would never speak of the latest idiot who ticked Lord Balem off and got themselves killed, one way or another. In fact, they would never speak of anything related to Lord Balem or mention his name in the Room, period. There was this deeply rooted believe between the employees that if they spoke about His Royal Pain, he could somehow hear and materialize right there in the middle of the room.

 

It wasn’t logical, but everyone followed it faithfully.

 

\--

 

Unbeknownst to Lord Balem, the Room had been keeping the Abrasax Refinery #1106 afloat on multiple occasions.

 

Since the Refinery was built five Standard centuries ago, it’d been facing multiple budget cuts. It was pretty sound decision from business standpoint. While the Plant was always up and running to produce batteries to be sold off, the Refinery was mostly inactive aside from the Fourth Planet Harvest four centuries ago and the Third Planet yearly skims. Still, didn’t Lord Balem know that his employees needed to _eat?_ Even after Night cut off expenses left and right, it still wasn’t enough to pay all of the employees.

 

Like hells he was going to let them all starve.

 

So, Night tentatively sold the Eye to the black market. To his surprise, it was a big hit. Apparently, Hunters loved its ‘acquired taste’ (that wasn’t the word they used to describe it, but same thing). Demand increased and the Room struggled to supply.

 

With the threat of starvation looming over their collective heads, every single employees worked together in perfect efficacy that would make Lord Balem weep had he knew about it. In return, they got extra pay to feed themselves and their hatchlings and still had enough to spare. Even so, Night counted that the profit from the Room would be enough to cover for another decade of budget cuts.

 

The spare money proved extremely useful when generator number five blew up and destroyed Sector 60 because a tech pulled up the wrong lever. No one dared to report it to Lord Balem; and since it wasn’t included in the reports, Abrasax Industries didn’t cover for the repair. Fortunately, there was plenty enough money to completely rebuild Sector 60.

 

When Lord Balem arrived for inspection the next year and didn’t utter a single word about the incident, everyone breathed out in relief. The incident was swept under the rug. As far as everyone concerned, it totally didn’t happen. _Ever._

 

Now the Room had steady demand for the Eye. Watered-down variant was sold in nearly every bar across the quadrant. Barrels upon barrels were smuggled out of the Refinery in the battery shipment from the Plant. The Vortex Gatekeeper didn’t want to do anything with the shady business, but they still turned blind eye out of camaraderie.

 

\--

 

Being regularly in touch with the black market made Night know more about things he wouldn’t get from his regular contacts. For example, Night knew about Lady Seraphi’s Recurrence way before Lord Balem heard about her. From the rumors, Night heard that Lord Titus (or at least someone who worked for him) had posted an announcement in the Hunter’s Board to fetch some Tersie girl.

 

Night certainly didn’t expect that things would go downhill so fast from there. The Aegis was suddenly involved. The Grav-hull was ruptured. The Abrasax Refinery #1106 went down in flames. Everyone in Night’s evac ship mourned for the Room and their dead comrades. Tskalikin, Greeghan, Jaxxor… Oh stars, so many Sargons died battling that defective lycantant.

 

They popped open some of the salvaged barrels and toasted and drank themselves stupid. For the first time in five centuries, they cursed out Lord Balem’s name to the stars and shared grave stories of the times they were working under him. They also cursed Lady Seraphi’s Recurrence and the ill luck she brought with her.

 

\--

 

Together, they rebuilt the brewery in some distant planet, with Night leading it as owner and manager. To be honest, the name ‘Chicanery Brewery’ had quite a nice ring to it.

 

They all lived happily ever after.

 

At least until they heard that Lord Balem somehow survived the Refinery Incident.

 

 


End file.
